Decision Fatigue, this is a thing?

Create a Decision-Free Closet to Reduce Decision Fatigue

Decision fatigue, this is a thing? As in there is a real reason why I can't face paying bills or writing or figuring out food for supper beyond crashing blood sugar and it's not just a manifestation of how worthless and unproductive I am as a human being on this planet? It's not laziness or worthlessness or any other derogatory term the Jerkbrain wants to come up with to experience contemptuousness over the rest of me? My brain is just TIRED, that's all, and that's not a fatal character flaw.

Luckily, my closet isn't the source of my decision fatigue since I've been using the Project 333 technique for a couple of years now. But this has implications for my 2016 schedule so I needed to put it down where I'll remember it.

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The BookWorm

Back Bedroom Rehab Project Progress 1

I finally went down the aisles in Lowe's. Sheet rock is my cheapest option compared to everything else. So the plan currently is sheet rock on the walls, Styrofoam ceiling tiles, press-and-stick tiles on the floor, and paint what needs painting.

Everything that usually lives in the back bedroom has been stacked into the living room and the hall. Luckily my house was originally built as a double-shotgun, so the four original rooms have multiple doors to the other rooms. I left myself a path through the living room to my bedroom door. Actually, the living room photos are missing one element. I first hung up the clothes I'm not wearing on the shower curtain pipe, but that lasted until I needed to shower. I borrowed a closet-on-wheels from Mom and squeezed it into the living room. The only things I left in the back bedroom was the extra mattress and box springs, which blocked the closet doorway.

The furniture I didn't want to drag too far ended up in the hallway blocking my bedroom door there, but the path is clear to the bathroom and back bedroom.

Once everything was out of the way, I took the Closetmaid shelving system down after taking plenty of pictures and measurements so I can put it back up in the same configuration. It works well in the room. The plastic-coated wire shelves went to the back porch so I can scrub the mildew off when the weather warms up enough for the job.

Remember when I said the mattress and box springs were blocking the closet doorway? The doorway is taller and Mustard climbed up them and got stuck in the closet last night. The only other way out of that closet is over the wall between it and the bathroom's closet that doesn't reach the ceiling. While there's nothing in the back bedroom closet for Mustard to hurt—I'm tearing it out to enlarge the bathroom so I never got used to using it as storage—I do store lots in the bathroom closet.

Mustard decided that my hands, the towel, and the broom were all evil enemies that must die while he had the high ground. I got him down without major blood loss and remembered I have an extra door, currently stored in one of the sheds. Went to bed planning to pull it out and use it to plug the closet doorway.

The next morning I figured out how to get everybody to leave me alone while I'm working on this project: get up early in the morning, find the door at the rear of the shed, and pull it out without taking out anything else all by myself. Trust me, I didn't want the help and the aura I put out compelled everyone to leave me alone.

The door needed scrubbing once I got it out in the sunlight. It was warm enough to not turn my hands into bleached-icicles and the mildew died. While the door dried, I trimmed the spray foam snot off the siding wall. I still need to clean off spots where it dribbled with some acetone, but that can wait for later.

I thought I'd have to hang the door but it didn't fit well enough to hang by the hinges. Propping it in the doorway blocked the top above the mattresses. WIN!

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The BookWorm

This Tortoise Could Save a Life

Usable Space vs. the Dream Plan

Date: 12/13/15

New roof has already improved the temperature in my house (yeah for more insulation!), so today is trying to get everything inside the back bedroom out for a while, scrub the back bedroom, and reorganize everything I keep in there. The leak encouraged mildew to grow so scrubbing. The leak also encouraged me to toss things away from getting wet so reorganizing.

Mom peeked in while I moved things and suggested laminate flooring to put on the ceiling once I finished tearing off the sheetrock. I gave a despairing look at the paneling I put on the walls to cover the nasty sheetrock (a job finished back in 2006 when I tore out the built-in closet). It has all warped under the leak's humidity and as I move more things out of the way, the warping goes all the way around the room. It all needs wiping off with bleach and nailing down and securing parts of the Closetmaid system again. "I haven't made plans yet," I tell my mother just so I can keep working without her in my hair.

But the having no plans isn't exactly true. I have made plans. This plan in fact:

This plan calls for the horribly constructed back bedroom and kitchen to be torn off and rebuilt, better, stronger, faster (cue the Six Million Dollar Man's theme song). This plan is also somewhen five, ten, maybe twenty years away.

Since I know this plan is so far away, my unthinking response is to keep the back bedroom shut off so I don't have the constant desire to go get a wrecking ball right now. Out of sight, out of mind.

And right now as I move things out of the way to clean the room, I recognize that is dumb, wasteful idea. I'm already using it as a giant closet. That is storage I must have. I have sewing I'd love to have a more dedicated space for. Ignoring the room is more wasteful than spending a little money now to spruce it up.

Ideas

• A real file cabinet for sewing patterns about 48-inches tall.
• Move all the Acadiana Faire stuff to the C-can. More floor space after that.
• The butcher block table I put the sewing machine on in the living room will fit under the bottom shelf on the west wall next to the fourth stud.
• Fix mission chair and move to the living room.
• Dresser holds keepsakes, garb props, and magic gear and is doing a great job.
• Need to rip out paneling but replace it with what?
• Like doubling up the pine shelves for deeper shelves.
• Use the big storage totes that were under all the Closetmaid shelves to keep the mattress and box spring propped against the wall.
• Will the hats and wigs fit on the shelf above the long closet rod?
• Put medieval bed together again. Medieval bed needs sanding so the pegs will come out easier. Add medieval bed to the C-can.
• I really like the Styrofoam ceiling tiles that look like pressed tin that Epbot used for their ceiling. I need to take better measurements of the back bedroom for ceiling, floor, and walls.
• Small boxes and craft projects go on the Closetmaid shelves.
• The tub I was keeping weight plates in glued itself to the floor with mold. Buy a plate rack.
• Chalkboard paint on Gram's old slate so it's functional again.

Date: 12/21/15

So what's the progress a week later? Not much. Truth is, I don't want to do heavy demo after coming home from work and the weekends have been booked with other things before the holidays.

I still don't know what to put on the walls and ceiling. I haven't been on that aisle in a home improvement store for over a decade and there are a lot more products available. The websites would be helpful if I had a clue what I want to put up and what will let me install my Closetmaid system without destroying it. So I have to make time to go look in person.

What I do know is I want to work in purple in the room and the walls are what I have to work with. So what I buy needs to be paintable and cheap because I don't mind spending money to make the room usable, I don't want to go over $500 in total. That's including flooring and ceiling rehab too.

Mom's first suggestion: laminate flooring. The con she stated a week ago: "You'll be looking at more wood."

Like my house really needs more wood on the walls. In fact, the back bedroom has a focal wall that was the back siding of the house. Okay, the mattress and box springs covers half of it, but it is there! Yeah, there are some cheap options in laminate flooring, but the colors I like are more expensive. And then drilling screws through it will be difficult and painting won't happen, so next choice. Oh right, I need to see other choices in person.

So before Dad and I left for his Christmas present, I mentioned how my house doesn't need more wood and I need to find cost effective solution because the paneling must go.

Mom's next suggestion: "Pallets! You can go to the local paper and get them for free and people on TV do beautiful walls."

"I just said the last thing my house needs is more wood. Let's go to Star Wars now."

Half the things destined for the C-can are inside it. I ran out of daylight Sunday before getting the rest and I have another box to pack. At least I hope I can fit it all in one box. Heavy storage totes had to go back into the back bedroom to hold up the mattress and box springs. I hadn't wanted to put stuff in until after I got to do some demo. :p Not that it's made a difference in how upside down my house looks with the stuff that's still out.

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The BookWorm

New Roof!

I started the year with plans to blog about other things besides when I spend a lotta money and what I bought.

Well, that didn't go as planned because this post is all about how I took out a loan, and then dropped almost all of the loan money onto a new roof!

But first, pictures of the old roof.

Lighting isn't the best; the sun wasn't even fully up yet. And my trusty camera is showing its age by saying I have no power when brand-new batteries are in it. So this in-progress shot is from my uncle's cell phone camera.

Anybody in my neck of the woods who needs a roof, I can't recommend Roof Crafters enough. Professional job, was upfront about my costs and what they couldn't do. I was upfront that I needed a new back porch because of decades of carpenter bee action had made it unsafe.

Boy, was that proved when they hit the porch rafters and the wood splintered. The whole job was finished by 3:30 and here's my new roof!

Sunday's weather forecast is 100% thunderstorms so yeah for a quick test of it, but boo because I wanted to catch up on my DVR watching and the satellite may mess up.

But new roof, no leaks! SQUEE!

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The BookWorm

FINALLY!!!

It nearly took a whole year but I finally bought the laptop I promised myself I could have after I paid my car off back in March 2014. I haven't had it long enough to see a difference in my productivity yet. But I have learned that my hands and trackpads don't mix. Takes too long to move the pointer, the pointer hovers over something and the computer guesses I want the program open or closed without my input or my too late input, and moving the cursor while I'm typing. Went back to a mouse happily, even if it's something else to pack. It's a Dell Inspiron 15, which I got a deal on because Dell was getting rid of Windows 7 merchandise and I'm still a state employee. It has a DVD burner, an USB 3.0 port, the rest are USB 2.0, and 500 GB. I'm saving the files to an external hard drive so to not bog the laptop down with anything that's not running the programs I need.

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The BookWorm

Hot Bod Third Try Fifth Month Update

So I figured I maintained through the holiday season. I ate too many sweets and didn't exercise, but I also stuck to my dietary changes and took my medicine and supplements. My weight reached 174 pounds at Thanksgiving and then bumped back up to 178 by January 8th.

But human nature being what it is, all I could concentrate on was what bad I had done. My bloodwork was done on January 2nd and I kept my expectations so low.

A1C = 5.5
Fasting blood glucose = 91

My endocrinologist was ecstatic. "Your A1C hasn't been that low since 2007." He didn't change any medication and I decided to bring that up when my A1C hits 4.x.

I'm not out of the woods yet. My cholesterol numbers show a high amount of inflammation in my body, so my next appointment with Dr. Jessica will start working on that. And my goal for this three-day weekend is to clean and set up yoga so I can do it easily when I get home.

Another side effect is my Jerkbrain/Fear Monger seem to have taken a permanent vacation. On January 1st I finished The Wayne Legacy's rough draft and looked around my office for what to tackle next. "Stellar Gift of Death's edits" and then I cringed waiting for the jerkbrain to start attacking me for letting that project go for so long.

All was blissfully silent in my head.

And I was absolutely flabbergasted. Don't get me wrong, I've been worried over the ferocity of the attacks to myself, the anxiety over submissions to the point where not working on original fiction was easier, and the growing thin-skinned-ness I've had over fandom wonk that used to roll off my back. I poked again. "Edit to a second draft and hire an editor for ebook publication." Nothing from the jerkbrain amid the excitement to be back in that universe again. Now it is possible to combat one's jerkbrain, but I haven't done any of that work. I just wrote fanfiction and started dietary changes that I detailed in Intentionally Left Blank: Hot Bod Third Try. The last time I remembered a jerkbrain outbreak was around September 4, 2014, when I was only fourteen days into the program.

The other piece of the puzzle was stumbling onto Epbot and reading her archive. This part from her A is for Agoraphobia post jostled back to the surface when I thought about how weird it was for my brain NOT to be screaming obscenities at me.

Next, I went to my doctor for a check-up. (Ergo that Halloween blood draw.) Since this next step will undoubtedly cause me more anxiety, I need the peace of mind that comes from a current clean bill of health. Not only that, there are several deficiencies that can cause increased anxiety: deficiencies of magnesium, potassium (both of which were critically low for me in the past), B vitamins, and even calcium.

Some of the same deficiencies I got worried about after reading Drug Muggers. Was my jerkbrain and the submission anxiety 95% biochemical?

I wish that was my only test, but last Friday I learned that my job may or may not be in jeopardy from the mid-year budget cuts that will force the Department of Insurance to layoff people. I don't feel like panicking nor is my back in knots. Boy, that was a case of not knowing how bad it was until it was over.

On a purely aesthetic note that I'm not using as a measure of anything, I bought new pants with Christmas gift cards and the three I bought are all 14s. I don't remember when I was last fit into a 14 anything. Now I just have to hem the suckers so I can wear them.

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The BookWorm